Bear Trashing Rolls-Royce Is Actually Guy in Costume Committing Insurance Fraud

Law enforcement officials in Los Angeles, California, have arrested four people for allegedly committing one of the most far-fetched insurance fraud schemes we’ve ever heard of. Police believe that one of the suspects dressed up as a bear to damage luxury cars and claim a payout.

Operation Bear Claw (seriously) started when an insurance company alerted the state’s Department of Insurance about a possible case of fraud. On paper, the situation was unusual but not unbelievable: One of the suspects said a bear broke into a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost and damaged the interior. Why not? Bears are not normally considered prime break-in suspects but weird things happen, like a moose damaging a BMW 8 Series, and that’s why we carry insurance. The person who filed the claim added that the incident was caught on tape by a home security camera.

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Pictures published by the Department of Insurance show damage that’s, well… not all that bear-like, unless we’re talking about a lackadaisical bear. The scratches on the door panels and the seats look relatively shallow and unnaturally uniform. The video is even more suspicious: The bear goes straight for the Ghost’s door handle and seemingly opens it just like a human would. Intrigued, to say the least, detectives reviewed the list of damage reports and discovered that the suspects had filed two additional claims on the same date and at the same location. They reported bear damage to a 2015 Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes-Benz E350, which were insured by two separate companies, and provided similar videos.

It takes more than a hunch to arrest someone, so law enforcement officials enlisted the help of a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to verify their suspicion. We can’t imagine that getting a degree in biology requires taking a class called “Spotting a Fake Bear 101,” but the scientist immediately confirmed the police department’s suspicion: The animal shown rummaging through the cars is definitely not a bear.

That was enough for police to issue a search warrant. Lo and behold, investigators found a bear costume with sharp, hand-held claws in the house. The four suspects were consequently charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy. If found guilty, they’ll likely need to pay a fine, return the $141,839 they claimed from the three insurance companies, and repair their high-end cars out-of-pocket—and that’s not going to be cheap, unless they’ve got another creative plot up their furry sleeve. Maybe patches of the bear costume can be used to cover up some of the scratches?

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